Choose the Best Small Business Phone Service
Learn why a unified communications solution is the best business phone service for productivity.
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What is the best small business phone service?
There are many small business phone service providers to choose from, so which is best for you?
In the modern business environment, the best phone service for small business is almost certainly a virtual phone service. A solution hosted in the cloud and based on VoIP provides SMBs the advantages of low cost, ease of use, and flexibility to take business calls from anywhere and any device. Benefits that were once exclusively available to enterprises.
Rather than an on-premises system that requires expensive hardware and hosting the service yourself, you can subscribe to a virtual business phone service provider like RingCentral.
That way, you can access and use the technology from anywhere, providing flexibility and mobility you simply cannot get from on-premises systems.
Get a big business phone solution on a small budget
Thanks to those advantages of small business phone services, you can equip your organization with the same tools that large companies use to grow.
Because everything is in the cloud, you get all the benefits of a robust and versatile business telephone service without being responsible for its management and oversight.
RingCentral manages your communications for you, for one fixed cost that’s surprisingly affordable and budget-friendly—You can even get started with a 15-day free trial.
Business phone lines that never miss a call—And a whole lot more
The best small business phone service is a virtual one, but is it actually a phone service? Does your business only communicate internally and with customers over the phone? Probably not.
So, wouldn’t it be better to have a holistic communications solution that handles your business phone services and a whole lot more besides?
Advanced virtual phone system features
While you may want more than simply a small business phone service, that doesn’t mean you can afford to skimp on call handling and management.
The best business phone service will have a full suite of features such as:
- A business phone line and phone number (local or toll free) that users can access from their cell phone or mobile device
- A telephone service with unlimited calling and call forwarding
- Auto attendant with call routing that also has options for professionally recorded greetings for on-hold messages and voicemail
Unify all your business communications
The best communications solution can be different for each business. Each has their own business communication needs that any software or platform must fulfill.
The modern age of business, however, few companies will rely on the telephone alone. That’s why RingCentral has gone beyond the basic virtual phone service by developing a unified communications solution. One that meets most, if not all, communications needs of businesses of all sizes.
Aside from providing a reliable telephony and call management system, RingCentral provides other useful communication and collaboration tools, including:
- Unlimited Online meetings
- Text messaging
- Unlimited Team messaging, file sharing, and task management
- Online faxing
- A personal AI assistant
- IT/business analytics
- Over 300 pre-built integrations for your other favorite business tools.
The best part is that all these features and functions can be accessed from one unified platform, removing the need to switch from app to app for different modes of communication. That’s a surefire way to boost productivity in your small business.
How to choose the right business phone system
Choosing the right business phone system for your organization is not easy. There are a lot of providers out there that claim to be the best, but their service ultimately falls short of what businesses need.
If you’re still not sure what the best business phone service is for you, here are some of the things to look for:
- Communication and collaboration features beyond basic virtual phone service
Don’t limit your business to just the basics. While having VoIP and cloud PBX to help you fully take advantage of virtual phone numbers is great, there is a lot more to cloud communications that can benefit your business.
RingCentral, in fact, has most if not all the features you need to communicate internally and externally. Aside from a cloud-hosted phone system, RingCentral also features a powerful team collaboration and messaging app.
From there, you can form teams, share files, and even manage tasks. It also includes a powerful online meetings app with screen sharing, interactive whiteboards, AI-powered features like video summaries, highlights, live transcription, full-featured desktop and mobile browser experience, and more. Host or join an audio or video conference call from anywhere, on any device and ensures that you and your co-collaborators can get on the same page even if you’re not operating from the same place.
Need to provide exceptional omnichannel customer experiences, too? RingCentral also has you covered there thanks to RingCX, an AI-powered contact center solution that works seamlessly with the rest of the RingCentral stable of solutions.
- All the communication tools you need in one platform
In the past, you had to get a different provider for each virtual communication need. Aside from your virtual phone service, you had to get a separate online meetings provider and a separate team messaging app.
That doesn’t even account for the non-communication tools like your customer relationship management (CRM) software. As a result, users would get app overload from the many different tools they had to use.
Fortunately, the RingCentral app (for desktop and for mobile) acts like your central communications hub. From the app, you can make and receive calls, access your voicemail, message your team, start an online meeting instantly, and even leverage push-to-talk capabilities to connect with your frontline teams. You can do all those and more without ever leaving RingCentral.
- A phone service that integrates with your business apps
Look for a business communications solution that plays nice with your other business apps, too.
Whether you use the popular Salesforce CRM or productivity apps like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, there’s a RingCentral integration available in the App Gallery, which allows you to use your phone system from within the business app itself.
If your business is using custom-made apps, you can still add communication components to it. There are different RingCentral APIs that you can use to add calling, faxing, SMS, and other functions to your own business app.
- A reliable hosted phone system
A virtual phone system that is always down and unavailable is worse than useless to a business—it is a huge liability. Instead of helping the organization, it contributes to the negative perception of a company because it will seem that they are unreachable to customers.
That’s why RingCentral hosts its service on multiple servers in multiple data centers across the US. This ensures redundancy of service. If one server or data center fails, you can be assured there is a whole other set of servers and data centers that can take over and keep the service running.
- Secure virtual phone service
One of the disadvantages of using a virtual phone service is that your data—like voice, fax, or SMS—will be going through a public network like the internet. This makes it susceptible to being intercepted by third parties while they’re being transmitted.
RingCentral makes sure that does not happen to your business. By employing high-level encryption, your important information is protected from breaches during IP transmissions and even when data is at rest at endpoints like the RingCentral app on desktop or mobile.
In addition to this, RingCentral employs an overall comprehensive security strategy that includes regular data center audits, multi-factor authentication (MFA), built-in service layer fraud protection, and more.
This gives subscribers peace of mind in going virtual with their telephone service and other communications needs.
So, is RingCentral the business phone service provider for you?
All business phone services providers will tell you they’re right for your company. What makes RingCentral truly stand out from the crowd?
Be more mobile with the RingCentral App
- You’re responsible for building and managing a thriving business. If on any given day your company is being run out of a hotel room, a coffee shop, or your car, so be it.
- Your on-the-go lifestyle demands that you be reachable at any time, anywhere. As one of the leading small business phone service providers, RingCentral’s communications solution is mobile-ready and ideal for bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives.
- With the RingCentral for iPhone or Android mobile app, you’re empowered to work the way you want while maintaining a unified business identity. Use your company numbers to communicate directly from your cell phone. Look big while remaining agile and able to respond instantly.
Integrate with your favorite business applications
If you use Google Workspace or other popular business applications, you’re going to like what we can do for you.
Make and receive calls and texts without leaving Gmail. Use click-to-dial phone numbers that appear in emails, documents, and web pages. Schedule online meetings (video and web conferencing) from within Google Calendar. You can even fax documents directly from Google Docs and Microsoft Outlook, Word, and Excel. All of these come free with your RingCentral VoIP phone solution.
Remain in control of your phone service, always
With our communications solution, you get none of the capital equipment or hardware costs associated with legacy business phone systems.
All-inclusive pricing gives you a fixed, predictable cost with little to manage. There are no setup fees and get access to free implementation advisors. If you choose to purchase desk VoIP phones, you can expect them to arrive pre-configured.
Our cloud phone service has built-in redundancy to keep your data safe and ensure automatic failover in the event of an outage. Even upgrades are automatic, with no discernible disruption of service.
Plan for growth with a scalable phone service
Growing your company is made easier with the right call technologies. When your success leads you to outgrow your solution, RingCentral is ready to help you step up to the next level. In all facets of your organization, at every stage, we’ve got you covered.
More benefits of a business phone service from RingCentral
That’s not the end of the business phone service benefits you’ll get if you trust RingCentral as your provider. You’ll also see advantages when it comes to:
Affordability
You’re on a tight budget, so you’ll find our transparent, all-inclusive pricing easy on your wallet.
Ease of use and setup
Our intuitive menu makes setting up extremely easy. Phone system features can be optimized to work the way you work, even from your smartphone.
Portability
Go on the road with powerful features in the palm of your hand. Our mobile app is available for iOS and Android devices.
Reliability
You can’t afford to have your phones go down. We have servers in multiple locations to prevent outages and data loss.
Productivity
This cloud-based, virtual phone system works with a multitude of useful cloud applications, including Google Docs and Gmail.
24/7 Free Support
Your workday doesn’t adhere to normal office hours, and neither does your communications solution. Have questions or need help? We’re available.
The best small business phone service empowers you and your customers
Today’s employees want to work from anywhere and be empowered to be as productive as possible by their communications solutions. Consumers, meanwhile, expect instant, seamless, and personalized communication from small businesses as well as enterprises.
The right business phone service, then, is one which is accessible anywhere, has a wide range of features, and works perfectly with other business tools. More than that, it makes it easy to collaborate across teams and to best serve customers.
RingCentral offers companies more than just a business phone system; it provides a reliable, secure, and complete unified communications solution. It checks all the boxes of the communications needs checklist that businesses of all sizes have.
Small business phone service FAQs
RingCentral is a cloud-based phone service provider that enables you to stay connected anytime, anywhere.
A low-maintenance, high-performance unified communications solution, it’s ideal for smaller companies with limited resources.
Businesses that see the greatest return on investment from this would be organizations that:
- Require a reliable and secure business phone system
- Plan to add staff
- Have employees who spend significant time in the field
- Have a limited IT budget
It’s much easier to get started with a virtual business phone service than a traditional, landline-based alternative. There’s no lengthy and disruptive hardware installation—and also none of the associated costs.
Instead, all you need to do is sign up for your chosen plan, download the necessary software and apps, and start customizing your system. Providers like RingCentral design their solutions to be intuitive and easy to get started with, and there’s also support on hand as and when you need it.
Yes, the business phone service providers can help you to keep the number that your customers already know and trust. When you sign up to RingCentral, you can complete a port-in request for your existing number(s) and we’ll work with your existing provider to get things switched over.
The cost of any business phone service will depend on your chosen provider and the plan you sign up for. RingCentral offers a range of affordable pricing tiers to suit small businesses and enterprises alike. Once you’re signed up, you can always upgrade to a higher tier as your business scales.